First and foremost on the list is Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which is being developed by Bend Studios with collaboration from Uncharted creators Naughty Dog Games. The main thing Sony wants everyone to know is that Golden Abyss is an entirely new Nathan Drake adventure — it’s not a port of an existing Uncharted game. Oh, and also that they’re incorporating the NGP’s touchscreen controls right into the gameplay, so that you can interact directly with the environment instead of just mashing buttons. Looks pretty compelling, see for yourself:

A whole new Wipeout experience is on the way, and the bullet point news item is the fact that this will be the first multiplayer title ever to interface between two game devices. Wipeout will let you play head-to-head against other NGP players, and PS3 players. Both. At the same time. Yowza. Once again, as you can see from this video, the touchscreen and six-axis controls factor heavily into the gameplay.

Soundshapes is something unique. It’s a different kind of platformer where music and platforming become one and the same. Everything in the levels is synchronized to a sort of electronica/trance music, and manipulating things in the environment will add new notes, beats, and ever increasing complexity to the music. The video makes it look like you can’t really do anything wrong, with the key to the game being experimentation. You can even create your own levels and recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq_LSb6p6F0

Hustle Kings brings the popular PS3 billiards game to the new portable platform, taking advantage of (you guessed it) the touchscreen controls. Like Wipeout, this one will be cross-play enabled with the PS3, and even allow you to play it in turn-based mutliplayer rounds as each player comes online, a la Words With Friends. You can even use the six-axis to rotate the camera around your ball, and make use of the built-in still camera and microphone for chatting with friends.

The NGP version of Super Stardust Delta is not a port of Super Stardust Delta HD for PS3. Being the first portable gaming console with two sticks makes NGP ideal for a dual-stick space shooter like SSD. It will be playable with both familiar dual-stick controls, and an entirely new control scheme that’s made just for the NGP.

It would seem that the recurring theme we’re seeing here is that most (if not all) NGP games are employing intuitive use of touchscreen and motion-sensitive controls to let gamers interact with popular Sony franchises in a whole new way. Sony promises to provide plenty more details on all things NGP — and PS3 — at E3 next week.

Following months of speculation and insider leaks, Sony at last unveiled its follow-up to the PlayStation Portable. It’s codenamed “NGP” (next-generation portable), which I can only assume means that Sony isn’t planning on calling it the “PSP2.”

The new device is a powerhouse of hardware, with tons of cutting-edge features packed into its sleek, stylish frame. At a special event last night, Sony worked hard to make the NGP out to be a high-tech cross between the power of a PS3 and the social capabilities and capacitive touchscreen of a smartphone or iPad.

That’s right: the NGP comes with a touchscreen — and not only that, but the rear of the device is equipped with a touchpad of the same size, allowing for new ways of playing. The front screen is 5″ wide, offering 960×544 resolution, and it’s not LED — it’s OLED, the next-gen screen tech that’s brighter, clearer, and draws less electricity to run. It has the usual arrow and PS action buttons, along with two analog sticks (compared to one on the PSP), making it more like a PS3 controller. It also uses the same Sixaxis accelerometer and gyroscopic sensor that’s inside the PlayStation Move controllers. Other specs include some striking similarities to the iPhone: 3G and Wifi connectivity, a three-axis electronic compass, built-in GPS, Bluetooth, and both front and rear cameras. No idea if Sony is planning a “FaceTime”-like video chat feature for those dual cameras, but they did mention that ARGs (augmented reality games) would definitely play a big part of the new device.

NGP will support downloadable games as well as a new physical media that’s basically a specialized flash memory card. The best part about this is that flash cards are upgrade-proof, meaning that future games will be able to use flash cards that hold more data but maintain the same physical size. Sony says that DLC and saved games will be stored directly on these flash cards as well.

Social networking is a major component of the NGP, with full PlayStation Network access and a whole new application called “LiveArea” that makes it easy to keep up with your friends’ activities. LiveArea will work with every game, automatically displaying the latest stats and activities of your friends on whatever games they’re playing. Another feature called “Near” will keep track of where you take your NGP, and show an interactive map that displays the locations of your friends when they’re nearby.

Franchises with titles announced for the NGP at Sony’s special event include:

• Killzone
• Uncharted
• WipEout
• LittleBigPlanet
• Call of Duty
• Resistance
• Little Deviants
• Hot Shots Golf
• Reality Fighters
• Gravity Daze
• Smart As
• Broken
• Hustle Kings

Sony also announced a new initiative called “PlayStationSuite,” which will bring last-gen PS features and games to specially-licensed and authorized smartphones (such as the leaked prototype that’s been making the rounds). The NGP handheld will be compatible with all PlayStationSuite content, and will be backwards-compatible with PSP downloadable content as well.

No pricing has been announced yet — although with all that advanced tech crammed into such a small package, there’s no way it’ll be cheap — but Sony expects to deliver it to the marketplace by the end of this year.

The PlayStation Phone is real.

It’s seemed like such an obvious thing, for so long, that tech-heads have been expecting it for years. After all, with the iPhone proving that smartphones can also be powerful gaming devices, why wouldn’t Sony engage in some corporate synergy between its Ericsson and PlayStation divisions?

Thanks to Engadget, we now know that the dream of a PSP Phone is no dream at all — it’s real. The popular tech site got its hands on this leaked prototype PlayStation Phone, which could be both the long-awaited PSP2 and a smartphone in one device. Engadget reports that the prototype appears to be running Android 2.x, complete with its own app store for buying and downloading games. (The PSP Go, with its download-only games, must have been conceived as a bridge between the original PlayStation Portable and this PSP Phone.)

Its specs are a handsome step up from the PSP, since it uses a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor and has 512MB of onboard RAM, with a microSD expansion slot. (The iPhone 4 also uses a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM.) The PSP has only 333MHz processor with 32MB of RAM. The PSP Phone has a generous-sized screen along with the standard PlayStation buttons and D-pad, as well as the standard shoulder triggers. One of the most interesting features is something entirely new to gaming devices: that long silver strip you see between the two recognizable controllers is actually a multitouch trackpad that emulates the same basic functionality as a pair of thumb sticks.

Sony is internally referring to this product with the codename “Zeus.” That’s all that’s currently known about the device; we have no idea when to expect it or how much it will cost, but my guess is that it will be priced to compete with the iPhone, its obvious target competitor.

Follow @FGgamer on Twitter for the latest gaming news.

Brian De Vitis is a freaking genius. A mechanical engineering grad student from UCLA, he built this fully-functional R2-D2 replica that’s so much more than an R2-D2 replica.

Hidden within its innards are ten game consoles. Yes, I said ten.

There’s an NES, Super NES, N64, GameCube, PS2, PSP, Sega Genesis (which, of course, is situated atop R2′s dome), Sega Dreamcast, Atari 1800, and an original Xbox. And there are ports out the wazoo. Needless to say, he gutted most of those consoles and incorporated their parts and pieces into his astromech unit, but they all work.

The pièce de résistance: a projector for playing the games.

Read more about De Vitis’ amazing gaming droid, which he showed off publicly for the first time at PAX ’10, here.

Sony’s first handheld gaming system is six years old. That’s one year older than tradition tells us is the average life of a game console.

The industry has been waiting and watching for Sony to announce a true successor to the PSP, but so far, nada. So in place of actual news, there’s always rumors and speculation to fall back on. If the Move motion controller has taught us anything, it’s that Sony has slipped into imitation mode (Move is essentially Wii HD, even down to its near-identical-to-Wii remote controllers). So the question becomes: with the next-gen PSP, will Sony target iPhone or Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS?

One rumor last week suggested that the PSP2 might be a hybrid phone and gaming device, a la the iPhone, but built on a heavily-modified version of Android 3.0, and might be available as soon as October. This same report claimed that PSP2 versions of God of War, Modern Warfare, and Little Big Planet are already in the works.

Today, the rumor du jour is that Sony‘s new device will have a touch-sensitive area on its back, though no one seems to know if this means the back of the device will double as a touchscreen, or if it’s some new mode of control. It’s also said to be the size of the original PSP, with plenty of room for slots for stuff like flash storage, and might even include physical media — a possible indication that Sony might be abandoning its recent direction of download-only mobile gaming.

Since Gamescom Europe is currently taking place and Sony has yet to make an announcement about the PSP2, it looks like we still have some waiting to do. So… heard any good rumors?

England’s MCV magazine is reporting that Sony might be planning to make a surprise announcement (which would be less so now, I suppose) at next month’s E3: the PSP2.

Now that the iPad is bringing high-def handheld gaming to the masses, Sony has to be feeling the pain with its low-def PlayStation Portable. Then there’s the already-announced, but yet to be seen, Nintendo 3DS, the successor to Nintendo’s uber-popular DS handheld, which is reportedly upping the ante by adding 3D screens to its new device that requires no special glasses to view. Add these two together and you’ve got yourself a world of hurt for Sony’s handheld device, unless they’re already planning to answer both devices with something brand new of their own.

PSP2 rumors have circulated for years (along with artist renderings of what the sleek, stylish new device might look like, such as the one above), but MCV‘s report sounds pretty convincing, even though it comes from the second-hand reports of the usual “industry insiders.” Of course, last year’s E3 brought us the PSP Go, the minor “upgrade” to the original PSP that deleted data discs in favor of downloadable content. But the PSP Go hasn’t caught on, and fans have been clamoring for a whole new device with boosted speed and capacity, and a bigger, high-def screen, for a long time.

Chances are, this report is just wishful thinking. But Sony would be crazy to not at least be planning the next PSP. The only real question is if 2010 is the year it’ll be unveiled. Sony has its new Move motion controller to show off at E3 this year, but that’s old news, comparatively. I can’t imagine anything else Sony could do to make big headlines at E3 than pull of a mega-surprise like a whole new device.

Until recently, the two major players in the handheld gaming wars have been Nintendo and PlayStation. The N has a strong history when it comes to handhelds, going back to the bestselling handheld gaming device of all time, the GameBoy. Sony has had significant success with the PlayStation Portable, an overall more powerful machine than any handheld device before it.

In the last few years, the race has heated up, as Nintendo has upgraded its wildly popular Nintendo DS in increments (DS Lite, DSi, and the forthcoming DSi XL), while Sony recently released the PSP Go, a new version of the PSP meant to do away with the unpopular UMD media format in favor of downloadable content. And then there’s Apple, which scored an unexpected and unforeseen slam dunk with the iPhone/iPod Touch, a convergence appliance that turned out to be an incredibly fun and versatile gaming platform. (To date, there are nearly 1,000 gaming apps available to download from iTunes.)

But now, things are about to get really interesting.

First up, Nintendo is hard at work on the successor to the DS, and thanks to one crafty journalist who gleaned everything he could about the DS2 from game developers at the recent Game Developer’s Conference, it looks like the next-gen DS is going to feature two higher-res screens that unfold with barely any seam in between, so that the two can be used separately, or as one big screen. This year’s E3 conference is speculated to be the DS2′s official unveiling, where Nintendo will boast that its new handheld has the same horsepower as the GameCube.

Apple is about to change the game again with the release of the iPad. Okay, so that might be a bit of hyperbole — I can already hear the critics crying foul, dubbing the iPad an oversized iPod Touch. It’s not an entirely unfair description, but consider this: the iPhone/iTouch is comparable in

size to the DS and PSP, with a screen size of 3.5″ and a resolution of 480×320 pixels. The iPad dwarfs this with a 9.7″ screen, displaying at 1024×768 resolution. Does size matter? I think it will when Apple has what is by far the biggest self-contained handheld gaming device on the market. Plus, of all of the new gaming devices, the iPad will be first out of the gate.

As for Sony, rumors have been circulating for years — with very little solid evidence — that a next-gen PSP is in the works, complete with a high-def touchscreen. Sony is playing its cards close to the vest on this topic, though.

But wait, there’s a newcomer to consider. Microsoft is getting ready to join the mobile gaming world thanks to the impending release of its new Windows Phone 7 mobile OS, which can work directly with an Xbox Live user’s profile. Full Xbox Live games will be playable on WinPhone7, with unlockable Achievements, user avatars, and more, all of which behave much as they do on the game console.

The war over mobile gaming is raging, and it’s about to get more interesting than ever. Where do your loyalties lie?

The Gathering Hall will be constructed at he former site of the prestigious Lazarides gallery in central London.

There’ll be three floors dedicated to the PSP game which launched in Britain last week, with comfy seating, free soft drinks, graffiti art, and space for the hundreds of gamers expected to turn up over the next two months.

To get in, you have to bring your PSP loaded up with Monster Hunter. The venue is open from 10am-8pm every day (10pm on Thursdays).

In London and want to be prepared? Here’s the venue map: 121 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2 0EW.

The PSP Go is the spiritual successor to Sony’s Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming console. I said spiritual successor because Sony stressed that the PSP Go is not meant to replace the PSP but is expected to be a complimentary device.

The PSP Go will be 40 percent lighter than the current PSP-3000 and will also be 50 percent smaller. It will have both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Confirming rumors for the device that has been running rampant on the internet months before, the PSP Go will not have a UMD drive. But gamers will still be able to download games directly to the device through the Playstation Store and stored to the 16gb of onboard memory the device will have.

The PSP Go will be available in both black and white colors and will retail for $249.99 starting October 1.

With the sequel to the PSP hit Patapon being readied for launch next month, Ars Technica reports that Patapon 2 will be shipped on May 5 not through the UMD format. According to Ars Technica, Patapon 2 will be made available for download through the Playstation Network for $15. Retailers will also carry a boxed copy for $19.99, but what the package will contain is a download code and not a UMD. To help bolster the veracity and accuracy of the report, Ars Technica noted that their source was also accurate when it gave them information about the Xbox 360 price cut last September 2008. Patapon 2 getting distributed digitally actually goes in line with Sony’s announcement at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show that all new PSP games in Japan will be released as downloadable content aside from the UMD format.

Hopefully, this proves to be true. It will make buying PSP games more attractive because of the lower price point.

Funny how it costs almost as much as a game… at US$23 right here, it’s an easy pop to building relationship with your PSPs… too bad your girlfriend might choose to stay away for a while, we’d understand her.

Aside from being multi-shape… it’s also multi-function. It doesn’t need to be wrapped around you all the time! You can use the accessory vacum hook stand for table-top viewing.

Now, let’s take a look at the specifications:

- Suitable for the PSP2000/3000 series console
- Easy to install
- Easily to change viewing angle – 360 degree turnable
- 2 different stands included – Traditional vacum hook stand and Multi-Shape Cobra Stand
- Traditional vacum hook stand – easily to attach any neat surface – Length: 26cm
- Multi-Shape Cobra Stand – easily to bend to any shape – Length: 92cm

Secret Agent Clank, one of the best reviewed games in the PSP’s game library, will reportedly be going to the PS2. The information is based on Gamefly, which has put a PS2 version of the game in its database. Gamefly has proven to be a reliable source of leaks for this type of information so it may be a sure bet that indeed Secret Agent Clank will get its PS2 port.

Aside from Secret Agent Clank there are also rumors that Wipeout Pulse will also be ported to the PS2. Hopefully, Patapon will get a port too in the future.

I bought my son the PSP Madden ’09 limited edition bundle as a Christmas gift. The shiny blue finish is really beautiful and, in my opinion, quite manly. Being the gadget freak that I am, I just couldn’t leave the PSP be without tinkering with its brains. With the help of a friend, we proceeded to install a hacked firmware for the PSP.

Installing was not a hassle though it took a relatively long time. When it was finally finished, the “rewards” were immediately apparent. ISO loading being the coup de grace of the hacked firmware.

This is one gift that I am looking forward to my son opening. I just tried God of War: Chains of Olympus on the pretext of testing the unit out and it took superhuman effort just to return the PSP back to its box and wrapping the whole darn thing.

If you’re after an action based title then look no further than God Of War: Chains of Olympus. Kratos is once again on top form, and you’ll find yourself slicing it up with the best of them in no time. If want something just as fast paced but from a racing point of view, then why not hit up Midnight Club: Remix. It has plenty to like, if a challenging difficulty slant.

Of course, there are some (slightly) older but entertaining titles that are well worth a look, including Everybody’s Golf 2 – which is a great little arcadey game based on the titular sport. I’d like to end this list with two games that come with particular recommendation. R-Type Tactics (as with the other R-Type games there’s more to this than meets the eye). Lastly, there’s Final Fantasy VII – Crisis Core.

I hope in this list that there’s something for everyone and many hours of gameplay for you – whatever type of gamer you are.

But reports are beginning to come out on the internet of owners complaining that in some games the image gets interlaced — that is, scan lines begin to appear. This usually appears during fast moving scenes.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has already issued a statement regarding matter and apparently this is an expected effect of the new hardware specification of the LCD screen. The scan lines apparently become more visible as a side effect of the faster response times of the screen. The company said that since this is hardware-related there are no plans to issue any kind of software updates.

I’ve read some posts from PSP-3000 owners and it looks like this effect is not as distracting as what was painted by some whiny owners.

Sony announced that it will be releasing the next Sony PSP version dubbed as Sony PSP 3000 by mid-october, just in time for the big Thanksgiving and Christmas season sale.  This announcement was made in Leipzig Germany during a video game convention.

Most of the improvements will be based on a more enjoyable/comfortable gaming experience, which includes brighter screens (bright to bring out and play under the sun), speedier performance (due to memory boosts) and a better battery life.

The Sony PSP 3000 has new feature additions, the most important would be a built-in microphone that will make the new PSP capable as a telephone.

“We believe that this will establish the PSP as a viable communication device,” said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

It will retail for US$294 in the US and Europe.

This time the color is metal blue, and it does (in my opinion) suit the hand held console quite well.

Unfortunately, like most new PSP models nowadays, there is a catch. You will only be able to acquire this model if you purchase the upcoming “Madden bundle” that comes with Madden 09, “NFL: In Just One Play” UMD video, 1gb memory stick and a coupon to download Beats from the online store, for $200.

It’s not a bad deal, but I don’t think I’d ever play Madden more than once to try it out so I wouldn’t be picking this one up.

One of the consistent problems that the PSP has is the lack of support for homebrew programs. Back when it was released, this wasn’t much of a problem, because people could easily create downgraders and install applications as they wished.

But ever since version 2.0, the only way to make your PSP able to run homebrew is by using the Grand Theft Auto game that has a security vulnerability that allows you to access the console’s kernel. This latest downgrader is no different, you will still need a copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories. Here are the steps that you need to follow:

1. Update to firmware 3.03. If already have this firmware then proceed to step 2.
2. Open the 3.03 downgrade file and copy the contents of the folder MS_ROOT to the root of your memory stick.
3. Open the 1.5 update and rename the EBOOT.PBP to UPDATE.PBP then copy it to /PSP/GAME/UPDATE/
Make sure not to overwrite PSP/GAME/UPDATE/EBOOT.PBP
4. Load Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (unpatched)
5. It should get to loading save game, clear the screen, the screen should fill with a light blue color and then reset the PSP
6. Check that HEN is running by going to system settings then System Information and it should show up as system version 303 HEN
7. If it is showing up as 3.03 HEN then go to the memory stick and run the x.yz update
8. Before the downgrader does anything to your PSP it will ask for you to agree to what it is doing
If you no longer want to continue press the Right Shoulder Button (R-TRIGGER).
9. Once you have agreed to start the downgrade do not unplug the PSP
10. Once finished the PSP will ask you to press X, after pressing it will reset it self.
11. If it comes up saying that the settings are corrupt press X to continue.
12. Enjoy your new shiny 1.5 PSP.

If you notice those steps carefully, you’ll realize that there are two version of the Liberty City Stories game. One is unpatched, and allows you to load homebrew applications, or even downgrade the console, the more recent version is patched, and therefore you can’t use the same exploit.

How can you tell if your copy of GTA is patched or not?

Unpatched versions of Liberty City Stories contain the 2.0 update, whereas patched versions contain higher updates. If your copy of LCS has an update higher than 2.0 on it, then you will have to find an unpatched UMD to proceed.

If you manage to get an unpatched version of GTA, and manage to get your PSP to an older firmware, then you can install a custom firmware and start enjoying homebrew software on your console, like console emulators, classic games (like Quake), or to have the ability to convert and run your Playstation 1 titles from it.

You can find more information in the original article.

You can grab the emulator from PSP Spot, however, you’ll have to search for the Playstation One’s firmware SCH1001 somewhere else since it’s illegal to host it. (But if you Google a little I’m sure that you’ll find something in some obscure site/ftp)

You can use the ROMs in BIN or ISO format and here’s where you need to place them, and the bios:

BIOS – ms0:/PSP/GAME/__SCE__psxp/bios
ROMS – ms0:/PSP/GAME/__SCE__psxp/rom

Well, actually folks… it seems that Yoshihiro has yet again created another PSP scene soap opera… and people have started to comment that this is nothing more than a recompilation of PacManFan’s original PS1 emulator which was on the works a few months ago. Here’s a quote from him:

“I did pass the torch, However, Yoshi[hi]ro said he would at least mention me, and he didn’t. I hate to be an a$$ about it, but Yoshi[hi]ro has been claiming that he coded this thing himself. The only change he’s made so far has been to the game selection screen.”

If Yoshihiro had never done any bad deeds in the past, I’d say this is probably a misunderstanding. However, knowing what I do know, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was just a publicity stunt in order to get more donations from various fans. I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what the future will bring.

xtrusion made a nice and simple executable, so all you have to do is simply run the EXE with your PSP in USB mode and it should work. However, (and I can’t help saying this too many times) this won’t work with TA-082 motherboards, so please check your PSP and make sure it doesn’t have this motherboard before moving on.

And if you succeed, welcome to the world of PSP homebrew :)

First of all, this article won’t include anything “homebrewed” so if you dumb enough to update your PSP to v2.7+ (me included) you’re very lucky to find this, there is one downside, for most of the tricks listed here, you’re going to want a big memory stick, there’s a few counterfeits on eBay (2GB for $89 – actually works, I bought one, fills up to 2GB), or you can take out the cash and buy one from Circuit City or Best Buy.

The program doesn’t really do much yet, however, if he keeps working on this and someone bothers porting KDE we might have a fully functional graphical Linux OS on our PSPs soon.

With this measure (if it’s not too late), the PSP could very well enter a turning point and expand it’s game library by the thousands. But, you know what the best thing about this is folks?

*feels a tear running down his face*

I’ll be able to play Final Fantasy VII wherever I want… thank you Sony… *snif*

To install follow these instructions

Use WinRAR to unpack the contents of this package into the root (topmost) folder on your memory stick. Note that if
you have an existing GTA savegame that uses slot 5, then this will be overwritten by the eLoader savegame.
You can see which slots you are using by the folder names – ULES00182SX, ULES00151SX or ULUS10041SX : X is the slot number.

To download head over to PSP-Spot’s download section or click here.

Via PSP-Spot

(For the moment Fanjita.org seems to be offline, when it returns I will put the link to his loader’s page)

Before you buy a PSP for that special gamer this Holiday season, you have to ask yourself one thing: do they homebrew? If the answer is yes, you better take care not to get a unit with a firmware over 2.0 — otherwise, no hackie. You can determine the firmware version by checking for a letter code above the UPC on the bottom of the box.

A-1.50
B-1.51
C-1.52
D-2.00 Unconfirmed
E-2.00 Unconfirmed (likely 1.52)
F-2.00
G-2.01